Displacement

Given that Muslims have frequently been left out of discussions and reflections upon a war that pitted the (mostly ethnic Sinhalese) military against the (almost exclusively Tamil) LTTE, her devotion to Muslim issues and perspectives in general and displacement in particular is refreshing.

It was a day like any other. Noemia Mario was working around the house with her four children when a wave of water suddenly came crashing down around them. Within seconds, a flood engulfed the family's home.

An award-winning Iraqi lawyer and activist for women's rights from Sadr City in Baghdad, Suaad Allami founded the NGO "Women for Progress" in 2007. She gives us a glimpse at how thousands of Iraqi women and girls are coping...

Mary Nyalipe Yoac has lived through five famines and four wars. Her brown eyes, now fading into a bluish grey with age, have witnessed more brutality and suffering than most can comprehend. Tragically, the last 10 months were no different, her community devoured by fighting and all that she owned destroyed or looted.

A year ago, James Gatluak, 38, was working with farmers across all nine counties in Unity State to increase food production. Today, he is stuck in a displacement camp in Juba, his state overrun by violence and its people sliding closer to famine.

"If peace comes, we will go home," she says, wiping sweat from her brow. "We will rebuild our tukuls [homes] and send our children to school. If [peace does not come] we will stay here, because we have nowhere to go."

It will take political courage from leaders on both sides of the border to recognize the gravity of the violent conflict and break the ideological and policy paralysis around immigration and the obligation to protect.

Shukri Sheikh Ali thought this year would be different. It was to be a time of rebuilding, of recovering, of returning home. Instead, she is starting over once again from scratch, her land thirsty for rain and her village emptied by conflict.

For eight years the inhabitants of several coastal villages in the state of Odisha, whose fields and vines enable a flourishing economy, have been resisting eviction to make way for POSCO's steel plant and an associated port.

Over the past few weeks, all twelve indigenous villages participating in a referendum voted against mining on Niyamgiri, a mountain sacred to the tribe. The victory gives rare hope to India's 650-odd tribes, many of which face displacement by mining, dams, and other "development."

Mayor Bloomberg has made privatization a hallmark of his administration, which has been most salient in his administration's rampant contracting out of municipal services. But in this final year, we are watching as this agenda goes into overdrive.

If war breaks out between South Sudan and the Republic of Sudan, fewer resources will be available to make the necessary investments that will allow the South Sudanese people to lead fruitful, rewarding lives -- above the poverty line and food secure -- in the new Republic of South Sudan.

The Greenland glaciers are very nearly melted altogether, reports Rob Purves, an Australian environmental consultant and board member of World Wildlife Fund Intl., whom I met last week in Lake Louise, Alberta.

The rain is adding fuel to an open flame of cholera. Health experts are registering an increase in cholera cases; in Carrefour, the cholera clinic saw an average of 300 per day this week, when it had been 300 cases per week.